Kathmandu, Jan. 15 -- Gagan Thapa is a familiar name in Nepali politics. On Wednesday, as Thapa became the sole official candidate for party president at the special convention, he took another momentous step towards establishing a lasting political legacy.

Thapa was born in Kathmandu on July 16, 1976 as the second son of Mahendra Kumar Thapa and Rameshwori Thapa.

Thapa, 49, a one-time host of religious programmes and news shows on radio, now has a broader audience, waiting to see the kind of guidance he can provide to the country's oldest political party and a potential leadership for a politically fractured country, especially after the September Gen Z uprising that saw dozens of youths dead and edifices of major state organs burnt do...